#personal – It Has Been a While

Like the title says: it has been a while since my last diary post! Again I’ve been really busy with school, but in between classes and homework I discovered some awesome new places to eat, learned more about healthy food and made many photos of my furry friends. Take a look at my life in pictures.

Chris took this lovely photo for my ‘NEW IN: Calvin Klein‘ post in which I introduced you to my new glasses! I absolutely loved this picture of me doing my makeup, but it did not fit in with the others. But that does not mean that I can’t show it off in my diary post hehe!

So I discovered the blog ‘Deliciously Ella‘ by Ella Woodward through a story in the Daily Mail and fell in love with her recipes and life story (click the link to the article in the Daily Mail to read it for yourself, as it is too complicated to explain in one sentence). On a whim I ordered her book. I NEVER buy things on impulse EVER. But I’m so glad I did, because Ella’s book is amazing! I’m thinking of writing a book review on it!

I had been playing with the idea of starting to eat healthier in my mind for quite a while now and reading Ella’s book gave me more motivation. So when I was traveling home after undergoing my first exam at the university I decided to go for a veggie wrap instead of a sugar-filed caramel latte!

Just to clarify: I am not becoming vegan nor will I stop eating sweets/junk food completely. I’m just trying to eat more pure as in: as few E Numbers (additives), bad fats and chemicals as possible. I’m striving for a 80% healthy, 20% indulgent ratio.

Scooped up this adorable painting for only two euro while getting groceries!

I live fairly close by the beach and while taking my 90-year-old grandpa there I spotted these adorable birdies! They’re called little ringed plovers.

And this is a little ringed plover chick! As a child I climbed the rocks of the breakwater at the beach to get as close to them as possible. My parents didn’t quite enjoy me climbing those rocks though…

Yup Zuzu is a nutcase. She is OBSESSED with wiggling her little booty into closets and drawers… She will basically try to get into anything that is closed off by a door.

Chris took my out to lunch to this amazing place called Huszár in Delft. Most of their products are organic and local. I’ve always been appreciative of restaurants like that.

Huszár is also very artsy. They are located in an old industrial building, that they have turned into a lovely restaurant. The food was so good (and affordable) by the way that I forgot to take a picture… I’m honestly the worst at Instagram. I always devour my food and afterwards think ‘ooh I should have taken a picture of this, shouldn’t I?’.

My father came home from a business trip to Dubai and brought back these stuffed dates! They were really good as you could imagine.

He also brought back MACARONS! They tasted quite different from the macarons I’ve had here in Europe. It almost seemed as if they contained spices like cardamom! Different, but delicious.

Caught Zuzu and Gurt hanging out together. Doesn’t happen very often!

This week I posted this cute throwback picture. How I miss the times when Gurt was still a little baby!

This beautiful sunrise made my early morning commute to Amsterdam a bit more bearable. From door to door it takes me a little over an hour to get to Amsterdam. I honestly do not mind commuting to university by train. Sitting in the train gives you time to think and kind of separate yourself from life at school.

I always pass by Schiphol Airport on my way to university. Sometimes, when I have to wait a long time for my train home to arrive, I take an earlier train to Schiphol and wander around the shops wishing I could get on any kind of flight and start traveling again. I’m enjoying university very much, but I do hate the lack of free time. Taking a weekend off to go on a little city trip is just not a possibility right now.

Chris and I had a study/lunch date the past week at another of my favorite lunch places in Delft ‘Thuis bij Ladera’. Which in English means ‘At home at Ladera’. It is a family run restaurant and like the name suggests it is very homely. You basically feel like you are sitting in their spacious living room! If you want to try real (good) Dutch cuisine I highly suggest you pay a visit.

Yesterday I tried my hand at making oven-baked sweet potato chips! They turned out pretty awesome, although I did over did it a little on the olive oil which caused some of them to stay soggy. Sweet potato chips are hands down my favorite kind of chips. I quite like vegetable chips in general.

What cute chicks, there must be something really interesting happing in the water as they’re all looking in that direction. Lovely painting. I think I’ve come accros that bookcover, in Belgium there is a 40 days vegetarian thing going on (don’t know if that’s the same in the Netherlands) so people can try eating green. Oh and wraps are awesome!